Backward Design: Session Overview

This guide is primarily for teaching ART 4392/5392 students how to prepare to teach their workshops in the FabLab, but it is generally applicable to anyone who wants an overview of the Backward Design method of curriculum planning.

Session Outline

During this workshop I’ll give a short presentation about the Backward Design process for developing a workshop (Yes! It's a workshop about creating workshops!)

Katie Peery, FabLab Director, will discuss limitations of teaching in the FabLab and other things that students should keep in mind while planning their workshops.

We’ll brainstorm workshop topics as a group and then divide students into teams based on their interests. Each team will be responsible for developing one workshop each.

We will have a curriculum design expert (Kathryn Pole) on-hand. Kathryn, Katie, Scott and I will help each group go through the Backward Design planning process for their workshop topic. Students will leave with a firm grasp on what they are getting themselves into, but they will need to do additional planning and preparation after the session. We do not expect students to have it all figured out by the end of the session!

We’ll wrap up by scheduling dates & times for each workshop session near the end of the semester.